A consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital struck a deal last week to acquire the Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club at a £4.25 billion (about $5.23 billion) price tag.
The deal is the largest ever for a sports franchise. The price breaks down to £2.5 billion to purchase the shares and £1.75 billion in investments to further benefit the club.
Clearlake and Boehly, who is the co-founder of holding company Eldridge and part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, beat out rival bids from Bain Capital‘s Stephen Pagliuca and a consortium including Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris and Blackstone‘s David Blitzer, as well as over 30 competing bids.
The sale follows the imposition of UK government sanctions on current owner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich, who purchased Chelsea in 2003 for around £140 million, has said he will donate the net proceeds to charity.
To better understand this historic deal, the following data visual shows the magnitude and timeline of the purchase.
Featured image by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images
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